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Executive Secretary of the University of Washington, Lillian B. Getty, letter to Professor of Economics, Rexford Tugwell, regarding students serving in the military and the American University Union in Paris during World War I, August 13, 1918

In 1854, territorial governor, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, suggested that a university for Washington Territory be established. The school did not officially open until November 4, 1861 with 30 students. In 1862, the Washington territorial legislature incorporated the school and appointed a Board of Regents. Throughout the university's early years, the university consisted not only of college curricula but also preparatory school curricula. The school faced constant changes in administration, enrollment and financial support in its first twenty years, often closing due to lack of students or funds. By the 1890s, the school had grown by leaps and bounds and exceeded the size of its original campus. A graduate of the school and later professor, Edmond Meany, served as head of a committee to choose a new site off of Union Bay, further north and east of its current site. In 1895, the school formally moved to this new campus. In 1902, the school numbered about 600 students but by 1913, there were about 3,340 students. From 1915 to 1926, Henry Suzzallo served as the University's president during which time the school underwent massive changes in new building construction.

During World War I, the University of Washington took part in many war efforts as enrollment declined by 30 while nearly 1500 male students and faculty went off to fight in the war. A volunteer ambulance corps unit existed under the direction of physical education, Dr. David C. Hall. Additionally, two hospital units associated with the University were formed under the command of Major J. B. Eagleson and Lieutenant Commander Milton Sturgis. Another major war effort included the formation of the War Emergency Committee that sent this letter to President Suzzallo. This committee was made up of 22 faculty members and the committee handled all University affairs in relation to the war. Meanwhile the Board of Regents offered the school's dorms to accommodate and teach 2000 men in the Student Army Training Corps as well as naval and marine corps training units. The army and marine units lived in barracks that were built on campus while 750 of the naval unit lived in tents. The school gave special training courses for the Army Quartermasters' Service, the Engineers' Reserve Corps, and the Signal Corps Reserve in addition to short courses in arts and sciences and military instruction. President of the University of Washington, Henry Suzzallo, also took part in war efforts by serving as the chairman of the State Defense Council. The council supervised war loans and bonds sales, encouraged food conservation and even settled labor conflicts. Suzzallo himself was a major player in negotiating a settlement for the spruce lumber industry and became known for his labor negotiation skill and excellent leadership. Suzzallo also served on the National War Labor Board, the National War Labor Policies Board and the National Metal Trades Board. While Suzzallo was gone tending to the issues of these boards, Dean John Condon acted as the school's president. It is likely that Suzzallo developed the illness and exhaustion to which his secretary refers in this letter from all these efforts.

Henry Suzzallo (1875 - 1933) was President of the University of Washington from 1915 to 1926. A graduate of Stanford University, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in 1905 at Columbia University. He was the deputy superintendent of schools in San Francisco, an assistant professor of education at Stanford and adjunct professor of educational sociology at Columbia. In 1930, Suzzallo was president of the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching. Under Suzzallo's presidential leadership, the University of Washington experienced impressive growth in terms of scholarship, teaching, student population and new buildings. He was especially invested in the construction of an impressive library building. Suzzallo was dismissed from his position by the Board of Regents when he butted heads with Governor Roland Hartley over the control of the school.

Rexford Tugwell (1891-1979) studied at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce before taking a position as Professor of Economics from 1917 - 1918 at the University of Washington. In 1918, Tugwell left the University of Washington to take over the American University Union in Paris. After his time at American University, he became a famous economist at Columbia University. In 1927, he served as part of a delegation of trade unionists to visit Russia. During the 1930s, he served as Secretary of Agriculture and was part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "brain trust" of academic advisors. After serving as chairman of the City Planning Commission in New York City in 1938, he became Governor of Puerto Rico from 1942 to 1946.`